Mourinho Madrid

[Battling football]

Hello,

New player. I want to play like 2012 real madrid. How do I do this? 

[Battling football]

Will this work? Players are not right, but roles? Instructions?

[Experienced Defender]

I cannot remember how exactly Real played in 2012 under Mourinho, but I can tell you what can be potentially problematic in your tactic and how you could improve it, taking into account my knowledge of Jose's tactical style in general.

First, lower LOE is okay, but lower DL may be problematic, as you are likely to invite a needlessly high amount of pressure into your box and defensive third, especially as you use a top-heavy formation with no DM. So you need better vertical compactness to begin with - which is btw a regular feature of Mourinho's tactics. I would suggest a standard DL / lower LOE combo in this particular case.

Then you have more urgent team pressing. Not only that I would immediately remove this instruction, but would consider even changing it to (slightly) less urgent. The reason for this is that you play on a high mentality (positive), so with more urgent pressing you are only increasing the risk of losing defensive shape - which is an absolute no-no from Mourinho's perspective, especially if you want to play defensively solid counter-attacking football. Instead, I would opt for tighter marking, which is much safer and makes a lot more sense.

Overlap left is another TI that should be immediately removed. Overlaps - as well as underlaps - increase the mentality of the fullbacks/wing-backs, and with your LB already on attack duty - plus in a top-heavy system with no DM - your left flank would be exposed in the extreme. So if you want to use overlap left, change the LB's duty to support. In that case overlap (or underlap) would make a lot more sense and would be considerably safer.

As for roles and duties...  3 attack duties up front are too much for a top-heavy 4231 system (especially when playing on a high-risk mentality). For a counter-attacking 4231, I would have only the striker and AMC on attack duty. 

Run at defence - another instruction that makes little (if any) sense in this kind of tactic. Why would you encourage so many players to run with the ball in a tactic that is intended to be fast, direct and counter-attacking, when you already have enough roles up front that are already hard-coded to run with the ball ?!? Therefore - remove the Run at defence TI.

Okay, to cut a long story short. Here is an example - one of a few possible -  of how I would set up a Mourinho-ish counter-attacking 4231 tactic under Positive team mentality:

PFat

IFsu            APat           Wsu

CMde    BBM

 

FBat     CDde    CDde     FBsu

SKde/su

Positive mentality

- more direct passing, higher tempo, play out of defence, fairly narrow (optional TIs -  pass into space, hit early crosses)

- counter (optional TIs - distribute quickly, counter-press)

- standard DL, lower LOE, less urgent pressing, use tighter marking (optional TI - get stuck in)

Player instructions:

DR/FBsu - sit narrower

AMC/APat - roam from position

AML/IFsu - roam from position

AMR/Wsu - get further forward

[Battling football]

21 minutes ago, Experienced Defender said:

I cannot remember how exactly Real played in 2012 under Mourinho, but I can tell you what can be potentially problematic in your tactic and how you could improve it, taking into account my knowledge of Jose's tactical style in general.

First, lower LOE is okay, but lower DL may be problematic, as you are likely to invite a needlessly high amount of pressure into your box and defensive third, especially as you use a top-heavy formation with no DM. So you need better vertical compactness to begin with - which is btw a regular feature of Mourinho's tactics. I would suggest a standard DL / lower LOE combo in this particular case.

Then you have more urgent team pressing. Not only that I would immediately remove this instruction, but would consider even changing it to (slightly) less urgent. The reason for this is that you play on a high mentality (positive), so with more urgent pressing you are only increasing the risk of losing defensive shape - which is an absolute no-no from Mourinho's perspective, especially if you want to play defensively solid counter-attacking football. Instead, I would opt for tighter marking, which is much safer and makes a lot more sense.

Overlap left is another TI that should be immediately removed. Overlaps - as well as underlaps - increase the mentality of the fullbacks/wing-backs, and with your LB already on attack duty - plus in a top-heavy system with no DM - your left flank would be exposed in the extreme. So if you want to use overlap left, change the LB's duty to support. In that case overlap (or underlap) would make a lot more sense and would be considerably safer.

As for roles and duties...  3 attack duties up front are too much for a top-heavy 4231 system (especially when playing on a high-risk mentality). For a counter-attacking 4231, I would have only the striker and AMC on attack duty. 

Run at defence - another instruction that makes little (if any) sense in this kind of tactic. Why would you encourage so many players to run with the ball in a tactic that is intended to be fast, direct and counter-attacking, when you already have enough roles up front that are already hard-coded to run with the ball ?!? Therefore - remove the Run at defence TI.

Okay, to cut a long story short. Here is an example - one of a few possible -  of how I would set up a Mourinho-ish counter-attacking 4231 tactic under Positive team mentality:

PFat

IFsu            APat           Wsu

CMde    BBM

 

FBat     CDde    CDde     FBsu

SKde/su

Positive mentality

- more direct passing, higher tempo, play out of defence, fairly narrow (optional TIs -  pass into space, hit early crosses)

- counter (optional TIs - distribute quickly, counter-press)

- standard DL, lower LOE, less urgent pressing, use tighter marking (optional TI - get stuck in)

Player instructions:

DR/FBsu - sit narrower

AMC/APat - roam from position

AML/IFsu - roam from position

AMR/Wsu - get further forward

thank you very much. I choose overlap left because that was how they played on the left (Marcelo's defending was very bad) I don't think I will change that. I think I understand what you are saying about more urgent pressing. I was making a big mistake. I don't think the roles you give are 2012 Real Madrid, but thank you for your help with instructions.

[Experienced Defender]

12 hours ago, Battling football said:

I choose overlap left because that was how they played on the left (Marcelo's defending was very bad) I don't think I will change that

You can create a natural overlap by playing IF on support and FB on attack (as I did in the above example), without using an overlap TI. But it's your tactic, so you can play however you want. I just wanted to warn you about defensive risks.

[CRN711]

Try this one I made some times ago. Or at least it could give you some ideas

Mourinho Madrid.fmf